Hicks abuse claims investigated: Pentagon

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The Pentagon said today it is investigating allegations of abuse
reported by Australian terror suspect David Hicks at the US
detention camp in Guantanamo Bay.

The Pentagon, which maintains detainees are treated in
accordance with the Geneva Conventions that prohibit the use of
torture or abuse, acknowledged it is investigating claims of
beatings and other mistreatment at Guantanamo and in Afghanistan
raised by Hicks.

"There's currently an ongoing investigation into allegations of
abuse in the case of David Hicks based on abuse allegations," said
Major Michael Shavers, a Pentagon spokesman.

He said the investigation began before the allegations became
public.

Additional investigations into abuse and mistreatment at
Guantanamo Bay, as well as other aspects of the detention mission,
were also pending, Shavers said.

Hicks' allegations became public yesterday in an affidavit
released by his lawyer.

Hicks, accused of fighting with Afghanistan's ousted Taliban
regime, said he and others suffered abuse by US troops in
Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, where he has been held since
January 2002.

He is one of only four men among the about 550 detainees who
have been charged. He is scheduled to be tried by a military
commission in March.

Most of the prisoners being held at the remote outpost have been
held without charge or access to lawyers.

"At one point, a group of detainees, including myself, were
subjected to being randomly hit over an eight-hour session while
handcuffed and blindfolded," Hicks, 29, said in the affidavit
sealed in August.

"I have been struck with hands, fists, and other objects,
including rifle butts. I have also been kicked."

Hicks also said he was forcibly injected with sedatives, and
that troops denied food to prisoners to coerce cooperation with
interrogators.

The US military has acknowledged 10 cases of abuse since the
detention mission began at Guantanamo, including a female
interrogator climbing onto a detainee's lap and a detainee whose
knees were bruised from being repeatedly forced to kneel.

Those cases are not among three incidents detailed in the July
FBI letter to Major General Donald Ryder, the US Army's chief law
enforcement officer investigating abuses at the US-run prisons.

The memo obtained by AP documents abuses that included a female
interrogator grabbing a detainee's genitals and bending back his
thumbs, a prisoner being gagged with duct tape and an attack dog
being used to intimidate a detainee, who later showed "extreme"
psychological trauma.